About Bestway Driver Training

Our History

Bestway Driver Training Centres was started in 1985 by Mary Baker of Coquitlam, BC. Mary always had a strong desire to make a difference in the community. She felt that a good way to do this was to provide good quality driver training that offered the benefit of both theory and practical training. Better yet for many families in the community, Mary thought that making that same training affordable was essential.

Since the beginning, Bestway has offered automatic and standard transmission driver training and has always had comfortable air-conditioned cars for our students to learn in.

As Bestway grew, other family members including her husband Leo came on board and were soon joined by other professionals in the field of driver training who liked Bestway's philosophy of using positive reinforcement, patience, encouragement, and modern training methods.

The Bestway team has kept our students' needs in mind since the very beginning. Bestway will never change this philosophy. It is the core of our business.

Our Philosophy

It is our belief that the drive for road safety has to go beyond us and out into our community as a whole. In order to accomplish this we try to put back into our community in other ways than by simply putting well trained drivers on the road. We are involved in traffic safety issues in our community and gladly support local minor sports and highschool events such as dry-grads.

We send our teachers into the classrooms of local high schools and to youth groups to discuss the issues of making smart choices about impairment and driving and the wider issues of driver and community safety. We speak to Senior's groups about changes they face in their driving due to age. We regularly hold Co-Pilot seminars for parents, families, friends and spouses of new drivers.

We like to share what we know. Bestway does not look at this as giving away our 'secrets'. We think of it as a form of 'risk- reduction'. The more drivers who learn about safe driving and the more aware they become of the ways in which they can keep themselves and others safe on the road, the better things become for all of the other road-users out there. (US!)

It is a win-win situation when drivers operate their vehicles defensively in our community.

Our Goals

Bestway has come to specialize in Class 4, 5 and 7 defensive driver training over the last 17 years and we now serve a large portion of the Greater Vancouver area. During this time, we've grown to be one of the larger driver education institutions in the province.We have always offered quality training at reasonable rates. Since we started, Bestway has continued to teach in late model air-conditioned vehicles. We are always striving toward our main goal of continuous improvement in all areas of our service. Team members undergo retraining on an ongoing basis to enable us to give you the highest quality instruction and delivery of service that we can.

Improvements in the quality of our training and customer service has always been a priority. Because we are family owned and operated, we understand flexibility and try to cater more personally to your individual needs than other large driver training institutions may be able to.

We are a company which truly believes in the concept of Outstanding Customer Service. Our happy customers pass our name along to their friends and neighbours when their turn to drive comes along. We try to take some of the stress out of the DRIVER EDUCATION process by determining your needs and expectations and then meeting and exceeding them.

Another big reason for our dramatic growth is that we offer excellent training for new and experienced drivers. We offer training which is 'learner- centred' and focuses on your individual needs. We integrate your training in the class, in the car and at home by holding Co-Pilot Nights so that your co-driver is able to better help you to succeed. There is always a supportive atmosphere while we help you learn to drive. We encourage you to be the best driver that you can be. And in the end, when your road test has been passed we know that one more safe, defensive driver is heading off down the road. Your success is our success!

We aren't just here for new drivers and so our students aren't all new to driving. Many experienced drivers come to Bestway. Some come to upgrade their license to a Class 4 level in order to drive ambulances, buses, vans, limousines and taxis. New Canadians work with us to adapt their driving to British Columbia's Driver Standards and to obtain a BC Drivers License. Some drivers need to learn how to drive a manual transmission vehicle or how to operate recreational vehicles.

Confidence courses for the nervous or inexperienced driver are common. We teach people to get on and off the freeway, merge, drive across bridges without fear or get back behind the wheel after an accident or illness. With re-testing ahead of them, many seniors have us evaluate and upgrade their skills to ensure a road test pass and a continued ability to maintain their independence and opportunity to drive for a while longer. Some drivers are sent by the courts because of Driver's License Suspensions or poor driving habits while others choose to come to upgrade their knowledge of driving from time to time. Companies who want to cut traffic and road safety costs avail themselves of our Fleet retraining and assessment programs.

The Baker Family